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Trade-environment satisfaction rises

Local importers and exporters' satisfaction with Taiwan's business environment increased slightly from last year, but the firms expressed pessimism about the nation's economic outlook for next year, according to a survey released by the Importers and Exporters Association of Taipei (台北市進出口公會) yesterday.

The poll of the association's members was conducted by phone in August. Of 3,570 samples, there were 600 valid responses.

According to the survey, 50.7 percent of those polled were satisfied with Taiwan's trade environment, up from 49.4 percent last year. But the number of association members who were unhappy with the environment was also relatively high, at 44.2 percent.

The polarization results from different views held by importers and exporters, as importers were more positive, with most exporters holding a more pessimistic attitude, said Tsai Meng-chia (蔡孟佳), an associate professor at National Chengchi University's Department of International Trade, who conducted the survey.

For the first seven months of the year, the nation's trade surplus sank by 84.3 percent to US$750 million, according to government statistics, an alarming figure for an export-dependent nation.

During an question-and-answer session in the legislature on Wednesday, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said the narrowing trade surplus was caused by surging oil prices and rising imports of equipment. The figure will go up soon, after the flat-panel and IC industries -- both of which are expanding production -- increase exports next year, Ho said.

Exporters also encountered a setback in the Chinese market, with the Bureau of Foreign Trade reporting that for the first seven months of the year, the market share of made-in-Taiwan products in China dropped to a 12-year low of 11 percent, outpaced by major competitors such as South Korea and members of ASEAN, Tsai said.

Satisfaction was highest for computer information and Internet infrastructure, with 76.5 percent of importers and exporters expressing approval, the survey said.

Custom duties and tariffs -- which were considered to be too high -- earned a satisfaction level of 41.5 percent, the lowest in the survey.

Regarding the external environment, 79.3 percent said high oil prices had impacted on their business, 53.2 percent said the revaluation of the Chinese yuan had influenced their operations and 52 percent said stricter environmental requirements had affected profitability, the poll said.

On the economy, differences between views on the local and global economy stood out.

The poll found that 51 percent of respondents were optimistic about the performance of the global economy next year, but only 31.2 percent felt that way about the local economy.

Lee Shih-wen (李世文), chairman of Union Chemical Industry Co (六和化工) and head of the association's petrochemical division, said the gloomy sentiment may be related to several difficulties local companies are facing, especially exporters. These include decreasing demand from the domestic market because of the large-scale industry migration and high operating costs, Lee said.

Exporters in Taiwan are finding it hard to cut operating costs because of the government's poor efficiency, Lee said. He suggested the government help companies by establishing direct cross-strait transportation and removing trade obstacles between Taiwan and China.

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